Like most people who work for a living I love the weekends and I’m especially lucky in that I get a three day weekend. Mind you I also don’t get the full-time salary a full-time worker gets but I think the tradeoff is far better. As I’m on my own with Jaycee Junior I definitely keep busy during the weekend trying to juggle household chores and maintenance with socialising. I can’t see the point of earning money if I’m just stuck at home on the weekend doing boring house stuff. I think the weekend just gone was a pretty good mix of both and I still have heaps left to do.
I managed to see the latest Harry Potter movie – Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. It’s a while since I read the book now so I can’t really remember what happened but I did enjoy the movie. When my friend and I were walking along the huge corridor to the relevant cinema there was a man with his two young children with him (the kids were about 5 and 3 years old). I said probably a bit too loudly to my friend, ‘I hope they’re not seeing Harry Potter’. Well they were. I was a bit shocked because it was an 8.30pm session for a start and my three year old would have been well and truly asleep. Aside from the late hour though I don’t think the movie is appropriate for a five year old and definitely not for a three year old. Cynical me thought this was a weekend dad occupying his kids time but I noticed the wedding ring afterwards. And to give the kids credit they were pretty good. I could hear them asking questions every now and again but not enough to piss me off. Actually the woman sitting a few seats away slurping on her slurpy ice drink was a lot more annoying and I was tempted to walk over and tip the drink over her head.
While I’m sort of on the subject of parenting, Jaycee Junior and myself went to a friends place for lunch on Saturday. Another couple and their four year old boy came along also. The place we had lunch at hasn’t got kids toys available (they’re 20 weeks pregnant) so I took along a bag of cars and a toy elephant my son selected to keep him amused. The other couple walked in carrying a great big sports bag of action figures then went out to the car to get more stuff – enough to fill a small toy store. And all this kid wanted to do was go outside and look at the horses and ride the tractor. I think my son got more amusement out of the goods than the other kid did. The kid obviously wanted to bring all this stuff with him and the parents said that he could. Actually that’s all they seemed to do was give in to him all afternoon which is not something I do with my son as it creates problems when you can’t give in to them. He was also a ball of energy and hyperactivity. I had to sit and take a deep breath after they left before I got in the car to drive home in the downpour. It made me realise how chilled Jaycee Junior actually is and how blessed I am.